A Right to Flee

Why do states protect refugees? In the past twenty years, states have sought to limit access to asylum by increasing their border controls and introducing extraterritorial controls. Yet no state has sought to exit the 1951 Refugee Convention or the broader international refugee regime. This book argues that such international policy shifts represent an ongoing process whereby refugee protection is shaped and redefined by states and other actors. Since the seventeenth century, a mix of collective interests and basic normative understandings held by states created a space for refugees to be separate from other migrants. However, ongoing crisis events undermine these understandings and provide opportunities to reshape how refugees are understood, how they should be protected, and whether protection is a state or multilateral responsibility. Drawing on extensive archival and secondary materials, Phil Orchard examines the interplay among governments, individuals, and international organizations that has shaped how refugees are understood today. 'An outstanding contribution to both refugee studies and international relations, A Right to Flee masterfully unpacks the deeper historical structures that explain how patterns of international cooperation endure and adapt.' Alexander Betts, University of Oxford 'In this book, Phil Orchard establishes himself as one of the leading international relations scholars writing about the evolution of international refugee policy.' Gil Loescher, University of Oxford1. Introduction: a right to flee; 2. Structures, agency, and refugee protection; 3. Refugees and the emergence of international society; 4. The nineteenth century: a laissez-faire regime; 5. The interwar refugee regime and the failure of international cooperation; 6. American leadership and the emergence of the postwar regime; 7. The norm entrepreneurship of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; 8. The non-entree regime; 9. Refugees and state cooperation in international society.